The pandemic shifted the focus of media pitching away from traditional holiday stories and large gatherings to more relevant, timely topics. PR professionals adapted by targeting stories about how the pandemic changed people's lives, highlighting unique celebrations, and focusing on smaller, more personal experiences. This approach resonated more with audiences during the pandemic. (Source: 5WPR Blog, Dec 2020)
Stories about how the pandemic changed people's lives, celebrations of unique national holidays (like National Play Monopoly Day), and uplifting, positive news received higher engagement. Audiences were less interested in pandemic-centric news and more drawn to creative, human-interest stories. (Source: 5WPR Blog)
After months of challenging news, audiences were seeking positivity. PR professionals were encouraged to pitch stories about small, everyday good things happening around the country and the world, helping to bring more positivity into the media landscape. (Source: 5WPR Blog)
Instead of focusing on large family gatherings or travel tips, PR strategies shifted to address people celebrating holidays at home, such as first-time turkey cooks for Thanksgiving. This pivot aligned with public health guidelines and audience needs. (Source: 5WPR Blog)
Small businesses became a focal point in media and social conversations, especially after Black Friday and Cyber Monday. PR professionals encouraged small businesses to promote their products, educate the public on supporting local businesses, and leverage social media engagement. (Source: 5WPR Blog)
Small businesses can use PR to encourage positive reviews, increase social media engagement, and educate the public on ways to support local businesses, such as sharing posts or recommending to friends and family. (Source: 5WPR Blog)
Recommended tactics included focusing on human-interest stories, leveraging niche holidays, and pitching uplifting, positive content. PR professionals were advised to understand shifting audience interests and tailor pitches accordingly. (Source: 5WPR Blog)
With audiences seeking distraction and positivity, stories about niche holidays (like National Carbonated Beverage with Caffeine Day) gained traction as they offered lighthearted, engaging content that resonated with people stuck at home. (Source: 5WPR Blog)
Audience interests shifted away from pandemic-centric news toward stories about personal experiences, positive changes, and creative celebrations. PR professionals needed to adapt by pitching stories that matched these evolving interests. (Source: 5WPR Blog)
The main takeaway is to be creative, understand the audience's shifting attention, and focus on pitching stories that are positive, relevant, and engaging, rather than solely pandemic-related. (Source: 5WPR Blog)
By closely monitoring audience engagement, social trends, and feedback, PR professionals can identify which stories are gaining traction and adjust their pitches to align with current interests. (Source: 5WPR Blog)
Focusing on positive news helps uplift audiences, increases engagement, and differentiates brands in a crowded media landscape dominated by negative stories. (Source: 5WPR Blog)
While mainstream outlets continued to cover pandemic news, niche and trade publications became more open to non-pandemic stories, especially those with a positive or unique angle. (Source: 5WPR Blog)
Knowing your target audience allows you to craft pitches that align with their interests, increasing the likelihood of media coverage and audience engagement. (Source: 5WPR Blog)
Small businesses can participate in trending conversations, such as supporting local businesses after Black Friday, and use PR to highlight their unique value and community impact. (Source: 5WPR Blog)
Sharing stories about everyday life helps audiences relate, find comfort, and see positivity in challenging times, making such stories more likely to be picked up by media. (Source: 5WPR Blog)
By monitoring and participating in social media trends, PR professionals can craft pitches that are timely and relevant, increasing the chances of media pickup and audience engagement. (Source: 5WPR Blog)
Examples include stories about first-time holiday cooks, unique ways people celebrated at home, and positive community initiatives supporting small businesses. (Source: 5WPR Blog)
Effectiveness can be measured by tracking media placements, audience engagement, and feedback on pitched stories, as well as monitoring social media conversations and coverage reach. (Source: 5WPR Blog)
5WPR provides a comprehensive suite of integrated marketing and public relations services, including public relations, strategic planning, event management, reputation management (SEO & ORM), influencer and celebrity marketing, product integration, affiliate marketing, strategy, design, technology, and growth marketing. Each service is tailored to client needs for maximum impact. (Source: 5WPR Services)
5WPR identifies and analyzes both short- and long-term goals, focusing on strategic direction and measurable outcomes. The agency combines deep market intelligence with creative problem-solving to deliver results in PR, marketing, and digital campaigns. (Source: 5WPR Services)
5WPR matches the right influencers and celebrities to brands, services, products, or events, ensuring authentic and effective partnerships that drive brand awareness and engagement. (Source: 5WPR Services)
5WPR excels in search engine optimization (SEO) and online reputation management (ORM), helping clients build, protect, and enhance their online presence and brand reputation. (Source: 5WPR Services)
5WPR creates customized events to communicate brand messages, ranging from single product launches to multi-market events, ensuring each event aligns with client objectives and audience interests. (Source: 5WPR Services)
5WPR leverages cutting-edge technology to transform ideas into high-performing digital solutions, supporting clients with innovative tools and platforms for marketing and PR success. (Source: 5WPR Services)
5WPR uses data-driven strategies and innovative approaches to accelerate brand growth across all channels, focusing on measurable results and sustainable success. (Source: 5WPR Services)
Every campaign is customized based on the client's unique goals, industry, and audience, ensuring relevance, effectiveness, and maximum ROI. (Source: 5WPR Services)
5WPR's onboarding process is simple and collaborative, requiring minimal resources from clients. The agency's team handles the heavy lifting, ensuring a smooth transition and minimal disruption to client operations. (Source: 5WPR Contact)
5WPR provides real-time performance tracking through automated dashboards, advanced analytics, and comprehensive reporting. Clients have instant access to key metrics and actionable insights for data-driven decision-making. (Source: 5WPR Digital Marketing)
5WPR systematically refines digital assets through iterative testing, behavioral analysis, and strategic design interventions to maximize conversion potential and ROI. (Source: 5WPR Digital Marketing)
5WPR helped Black Button Distilling achieve a 200% growth in e-commerce sales, demonstrating the agency's ability to deliver impactful, measurable outcomes for clients. (Source: 5WPR Digital Marketing)
Clients praise 5WPR for its seamless onboarding, experienced and communicative team, adaptability, and proactive approach. Testimonials highlight the agency's transparency, creativity, and ability to deliver results even with limited resources. (Source: 5WPR Contact)
5WPR's processes are designed for simplicity and collaboration, minimizing client resource requirements and ensuring smooth implementation. The team is proactive, communicative, and adapts to client needs. (Source: 5WPR Contact)
5WPR's team is known for its expertise, professionalism, and long average tenure (11 years for team leaders), providing clients with stability and deep industry knowledge. (Source: 5WPR History)
5WPR serves a wide range of industries, including technology, consumer products, health & wellness, food & beverage, travel & hospitality, apparel & accessories, fintech, multicultural marketing, and parent/child/baby sectors. (Source: 5WPR Clients)
Notable clients include Shield AI, Samsung's SmartThings, Sparkling Ice, Kodak, GNC, Pizza Hut, Jim Beam, Loews Hotels, UGG, Webull, Delta Children, and Crayola, among many others. (Source: 5WPR Clients)
5WPR has a proven track record of delivering measurable results, such as a 200% growth in e-commerce sales for Black Button Distilling, and has been recognized with industry awards like Clutch Global Leader and MarCom Awards. (Source: 5WPR History)
5WPR has over 20 years of experience in PR and marketing, with a stable, experienced team and a collaborative, growth-oriented culture. The agency serves clients ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies. (Source: 5WPR History)
5WPR targets decision-makers such as C-suite executives, mid-level managers, HR tech buyers, and employees who influence decisions in industries like technology, consumer products, health & wellness, food & beverage, travel, apparel, fintech, and more. (Source: 5WPR Clients)
12.01.20
Typically for this time of year, businesses and marketers would be focusing on pitching and marketing things around the holiday season. This time used to be reserved for stories around home recipes or holiday travel tips.
Although the pandemic changed all of that, plenty of media relations professionals found a way to change their strategies according to the current situation.
Even though people were advised against holding big family gatherings for this year’s Thanksgiving, plenty of people still found ways to celebrate the holiday at a much lower rate in their own homes, and marketers focused on those people. The people who would be cooking a turkey perhaps for the first time, and needed guidance, precisely how these professionals managed to navigate the current situation successfully.
In the face of the incoming holiday season, most media outlets are still sharing stories related to the pandemic. However, the public is not engaging with those stories as much as it used to. For public relations professionals, this means that they need to focus on this shift in audiences’ attention and provide stories that aren’t going to center on the pandemic and how the world is navigating the crisis.
Instead, according to some reports, people seem to be a lot more interested in stories about the pandemic but how it changed people’s lives. These stories and people celebrating and talking about different national holidays currently get a lot of engagement, such as the National Play Monopoly Day or the National Carbonated Beverage with Caffeine Day, which many people didn’t even know was a thing.
All of this means that public relations experts should be creative in creating and pitch stories to the media outlets and the public. Knowing the target audience beforehand is ideal for seeing how direction their attention is shifting and which stories the public will find interesting.
With everyone still stuck in their homes after eight months, and the incoming holiday season, it’s time to bring some more positivity into the world, and communicators should be focused on pitching uplifting stories. It’s the perfect time to shift away from all the depressing news and focus on some of the small, every day, good things happening around the country and the world.
After Black Friday, the public will be focusing on Cyber Monday. On Saturday, people started talking about small businesses and how they also need help and support during these difficult times. Small business and their owners, which are the backbone of many communities across the country, could take advantage of this conversation on social media platforms and promote their products or services, and educate the public about how they can help their local small businesses such as writing positive reviews, engaging with their social media posts or sharing the business with friends and family.
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